


Of Promises and a Lifetime

by boats_birds



Series: KagaKuro Week 2015 [6]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Sappy, in which Kuroko has never been more thankful for anything than Kagami, kagakuroweek2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-12
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-26 01:00:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4983766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boats_birds/pseuds/boats_birds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The words leave him before he can think to stop them. “Marry me. Please.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Promises and a Lifetime

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY (SLIGHTLY LATE SSSHHH) KAGAKURO DAY, GUYS!!! I have one more fic planned after this, I believe, but that'll be posted tomorrow during the free day! This has been such an incredible week, and I'm so happy to have been able to participate in it! Thank you so much for reading my things, for posting your own, and for just making this such a wonderful time. <3 For the prompt: Gratitude.

Kuroko has a habit of sometimes thinking too much, and yet somehow it’s always the right amount.

Lying in bed and brushing electric sparks across their naked skin, Kagami on his stomach with his face buried in a pillow and Kuroko curled up against his side as close as he can get, Kuroko tosses his legs over Kagami’s before resting his fingertips against that vast, tanned back. He loves doing this, loves walking his fingers along the bumps of Kagami’s vertebrae, then skating back down with the blunt of his nails just so Kagami shivers and makes that happy noise in the back of his throat. He’s in the midst of tracing patterns of nonsense and prose across the canvas of Kagami’s skin, scripting ‘ _I love you’_ followed by a ballet of swirls, when he starts to think too much.

_He’s so glad he met Kagami_.

For years now, from high school to college to moving in together, to a million other things that lied between all that, Kagami has done _so much_ for him. He’d been there for him before they even met, on a lonely court beside a cold basketball goal, with a soft exchange of words to never give up before he even knew Kuroko’s name. And when he’d told Kagami as much, softly whispered that he thought he remembered a flash of red that desolate night, Kagami had held him close and breathed, “So I met you before I knew you? Only you, Tetsuya. _Only you._ ”

And that was only a mere scratch on the surface of Kagami, who was so much deeper than what he seemed, Kuroko thinks as he carefully writes the kanji for promise on Kagami’s shoulder blade.

He smiles thinking about how many vows Kagami had kept for him in the entire time they’ve known each other, how many swears have been declared and pinkies have been twined. It started with becoming number one in Japan, and somehow between their banter and brushes of knuckles had morphed into never leaving Kuroko alone. Then it became something even more, something unspoken about always being together. Promises were important to Kuroko, something to be cherished and held preciously, as if when they were spoken they became shards of glass that needed protection.

And Kagami was the only one to keep every tiny piece of glass poured from Kuroko completely unharmed.

Then there was Kagami himself, a wildfire spirit that glowed like a firefly in Kuroko’s darkest nights, a tiny light meant just for him. With each thought, Kuroko ghosts the word over Kagami’s skin. Inspirational, for always trying his best and never surrendering to a challenge, not even a difficult one like understanding Kuroko. Strong, for all the times he held Kuroko up above everything else, so he could see nothing but open sky all around them. Breathtaking, for every single one of Kuroko’s breaths that he stole, snatching it right from his lungs with a hand through his hair or a hooding of red eyes. And beautiful, just because Kagami was.

Most importantly, as his fingers trail down that long backbone and over a shudder, curving around the symbol for ‘ _love_ ’, Kagami loves him. Every part of him. Kagami looks at him like he’s irreplaceable, as if Kuroko’s made of constellations and holds an entire universe between his ribs, as if he can’t believe Kuroko’s real (even though it’s really the other way around). Kagami has seen every facet of him, dipped into all the polite and serene parts that loved reading novels and napping on the couch, embraced all the broken and frayed parts that curled into a ball when the world didn’t seem right and everything needed to be more quiet.

With every new side of Kuroko he learned, Kagami would kiss him with a breathless, “ _I love you, Tetsuya_.”

Kuroko’s digits cross the dimples of his back, settling in the hollow of Kagami’s spine, as he traces out, ‘ _Everything_ ’. Because he loves everything about Kagami, because Kagami accepts everything about him, because he wants to give Kagami his everything. Because Kuroko would be nothing if they had never met all those memories ago, and instead he was everything because they had met, and he was _so thankful_ that they did.

He rests his cheek against Kagami’s bicep, staring into that sleepy face, red eyes closed and content, practically melted and purring like a cat under Kuroko’s ministrations.

It hits him slowly, as if he always knew it, yet had never known.

He wants to spend the rest of his life looking at this face. He wants to wake up every morning to Kagami’s teasing, “Wake up, bedhead,” and fall asleep every night to Kagami’s hushed, “Night, blue eyes.” He wants to go for walks with Nigou, and play basketball every chance they got, and have lazy Sunday afternoons, and fight for the blanket when it gets cold outside then snuggle as a compromise, and tangle together in the sheets until they’re not even sure which of them is Kagami and which is Kuroko.

He wants Kagami Taiga. More than anything and everything.

The words leave him before he can think to stop them.

“Marry me. Please.”

Kagami freezes under his touch, the muscles in his back tensing before his eyes snap open. He rises up to stare at Kuroko, red eyes piercing into him, wide and shocked, while his jaw hangs open. No words come out, but he makes an odd series of noises, like he forgot both languages that he knew.

“…What?” he finally manages, voice cracking.

A slow heat builds in Kuroko’s cheeks, a flush crawling up to his ears, and Kuroko knows that his face is _so red_ that he can’t bear to look into those eyes that know him so well when he’s so embarrassed. So he drops his hand from Kagami’s back and looks down at their sheets, trying to count all 120 threads in every square inch, fingers twisting in their blanket.

He licks his lips. “I know this is sudden and I don’t have a ring, but… I was just thinking about how I’m so thankful that you came into my life,” he whispers. “And then I was thinking…that nothing would make me happier than spending all the rest of that life by your side.”

He manages to peek up at Kagami from under his lashes, just to see Kagami’s face grow even more wide-eyed and slack-jawed, which Kuroko didn’t think was possible. He fiddles with the blanket around his waist again, playing with a loose thread and looks away, unable to keep contact with someone who manages to be so bright in the middle of the dark.

And he suddenly feels so foolish. Of course, just because he wanted to marry Kagami didn’t mean Kagami felt the same. He knows Kagami loves him, but that didn’t mean they were ready or able to or _anything_. But he had felt it build in his chest, those words spilling from his heart and not his throat, and he couldn’t find it in him to take it back. He couldn’t bring himself to lie to Kagami and tell him to forget about it, even if he had said it without thinking.

As it was, he did say, “I understand if you don’t though. I’m sorry for asking without any prior notice.”

“ _Idiot!_ ”

He’s barely finished his apology before Kagami’s already yelling at him, and that catches his attention enough for him to lift his head and meet Kagami’s eyes. At least, he would if they weren’t squeezed shut, crinkling at the corners. Kagami has the biggest grin on his face, one Kuroko has never seen him wear before, and it stretches his face in a way that looks painful and has the power to ignite ten galaxies at once.

“Of course I will!” he chokes out. “I was actually going to ask you when the timing was right. I went ring shopping and everything.” He suddenly laughs, and it’s so _happy_ , so completely _blissful_ , that Kuroko feels his pulse pound in time with it. “But you beat me to it, you bastard!”

Kuroko smiles. He feels so weightless, like he’s wispy at the edges, like Kagami could fly him away and Kuroko would just cling to him without even asking where they were going. Like he’s falling in love all over again. It feels unreal, so unreal, his stomach flipped upside-down and his heart replaced with butterflies, but Kagami cups his face, thumb brushing his cheek, and _it’s so real_.

So Kuroko launches himself at Kagami, burying his face in his chest while strong arms wind around his waist and squeeze as tight as they can. Every time he thinks he couldn’t possibly be happier than he already is, that he has to be the happiest person on this planet, Kagami proves him wrong and shows him an even greater happiness, an even brighter light, to the point that Kuroko’s whole life feels like it should be a blinding shooting star.

And while they may not know when or how, while it may have been something Kuroko asked after thinking too much, there’s no need to know when Kagami’s fingers spell out the answer to everything.

_I’m so glad I met you._

He swallows and laughs, “Only Taiga-kun would accept my marriage proposal while calling me a bastard.”

And if they both have little tears in the corners of their eyes, neither of them mention it.


End file.
